Trelew massacre

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Trelew massacre
Part of the Dirty War
Almirante Marcos A. Zar Airport
Location	Almirante Zar Aeronaval Base, Trelew, Chubut Province, Argentina
Coordinates	43°13′01″S 65°16′11″W / 43.2169°S 65.2697°W / -43.2169; -65.2697
Date	22 August 1972 03:30 a.m. (UTC−03:00)
Target	Members of the left-wing guerrillas Montoneros, ERP and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR)
Attack type	Execution by firing squad
Deaths	16
Injured	3
Perpetrator	Argentine Navy
Motive	Elimination of political dissidents following their successful escape from the Rawson Prison on 15 August and subsequent recapture

The Trelew Massacre was a mass execution of 16 political prisoners, militants of different Peronist and leftist organizations, in Rawson prison by the military dictatorship of Argentina. The prisoners were recaptured after an escape attempt and subsequently shot down by marines led by Lieutenant Commander Luis Emilio Sosa in a simulated new attempt to escape. The marines forced the prisoners to fake a new escape, then executed them as revenge by the Revolución Argentina for the successful escape of some of their comrades during the initial prison break. The massacre took place in the early hours of 22 August 1972 in the Almirante Marcos A. Zar Airport, an Argentine Navy airbase located near the city of Trelew, Chubut in Patagonia.